The invention relates to a window pane holder for vehicles, and more particularly, to a window pane holder for retaining the bottom end of a window pane slidably mounted in a sash on a door of a vehicle and connected with an elevating unit for lifting and lowering the window pane.
In known holders of this kind, a relatively tight engagement is maintained between the window pane and the sash, and this causes a tension of an appreciable magnitude to be exerted by one of the cooperating members upon the other when lowering the window pane. As a consequence, the holder must have a firm grip on the window pane. A conventional holder comprise a frame which is pressed from a metal sheet of a length commensurate with the width of the window pane into a channel-shaped cross section having a slot width or lateral separation which is substantially equal to the thickness of the window pane. One of the sidewalls of the frame has a pair of legs welded thereto at its axial ends for connection with an elevating unit. When mounting the window pane in the frame, the frame portion defining the slot is lined with a rubber sheet before the pane is forcibly fitted into the slot, thus retaining it in place under the inward resilience of the rubber lining. Soapsuds or other drying lubricant must be applied to either the inner surface of the lining or the lower margin of the pane when fitting the latter in order to assure a smooth sliding therebetween.
When these conventional holders are used, any distortion in the frame may result in a failure to provide a tight fit into the holder or a disengagement of the pane therefrom inasmuch as the pane is held in place by utilizing the resilience of the frame over its entire length, and indeed the frame is often susceptible to such deformation because of its increased length extending along substantially the full length of the window pane. In addition, the number of manufacturing steps required for the described holder construction disadvantageously increases the overall cost.